Thursday, May 28, 2015

God's Perfect timing

June 2014 Tom and I and Merry Ann Blanchard, our real estate agent and friend, sat in my studio writing up the listing for our business and property to be sold. At that time we prayed and asked God to grant the sale to come in August of 2015. Within two days we had an offer and we felt good about the people who would be buying Rosies and we set out to wait until they sold their property in Portland so the transaction could be completed, ever marching towards our desired and prayed for date of August 2015.

During the next few months we decided on the place we wanted to live, Lake Havasu City, Arizona having found an incredible church we want to belong to and green grass and crystal blue water
and we began liquidating unnecessary belongings.

In November 2014 we went in to the wait mode, trying not to be inpatient. Well it didn't work and we decided to go head and buy a house in Lake Havasu, just planning ahead......ya know....right......

The first house which we both loved had a bad inspection report and we let it go........

Right after that house, the home equity I was going to use for the down payment disappeared instantly...right before our eyes....Money available....Money gone....in a blink of an eye. The 10 year draw had come to an end which I didn't realize was coming and blink....it was gone.....

Then we found the next house and began the loan application using our business equity for the downpayment knowing that once we sold the property, we could clear all the temporary loans.
Everything progressed nicely and our application went to the underwriters for approval.

In the meantime our first buyer took second position because their property had not sold to close the deal.
We instantly got another buyer and began negotiations with them for the sale of our property.

During the loan application for our new house in Lake Havasu and the negotiations with the second buyer for our property, a spot was found on my regular mammogram. Repeat exams, sonogram, needle biopsy....The day before I got my results from the biopsy Tom calls me and says....."are you sitting down?" instantly I thought about the biopsy nope that wasn't it at all. The loan for our new house was denied due to the fact that we had a signed sale agreement on our business property.

The next day I got my biopsy....Cancer of the right breast with surgery and radiation and possible chemotherapy on the horizon.

I was hysterically happy the new house sale in Lake Havasu had failed, especially when I was finally....finally....finally....beginning to understand that Father Knows Best!

Then I contemplated the second offer on our property which would have required us to leave the property by September 1. I would not be done with radiation in Portland until August....How were we going to be able to accomplish this???? God knew.....The second offer was withdrawn and we are back to square one with our first offer in the wings and the listing agreement running out June 30, 2015 which will release the first buyer. I have time to breathe and take care of my cancer and think about my future and God's plan for my life. He surely has plans in his perfect timing.

We prayed again, this time just Tom and I. We know we are called to be in Lake Havasu City, for what we do not know, but we will know when we get there. We began to appreciate the business and property we have here in Oregon. It has been a blessing to us for many years.

We are now exploring keeping the business and property if it does not sell by June 30, 2015 and we have rented a house in Lake Havasu beginning June 15, 2015. We will not be able to be in that house until August 2015 after my radiation and we will not be able to be full-time yet but with God's help and provision we will commute as needed and we will answer his call in Lake Havasu City and we will wait upon him to see how he wants us to serve him. We have full confidence that God will work our life out perfectly!

We thank you Father for directing and guiding and correcting and moving in every step of this journey. We have felt you intimately throughout this process which has been a lot of ups and downs, pain and sorrow, joy and laughing, praising and petitioning worth every minute and more of this nearly one year journey of timing........

your children.....Tom and Steph

Thank you Father for the gifts you just keep piling up and up and up on us!

excerpt from:

God's Gonna Make You Laugh: Understanding God's Timing for Your Life

By Noel JonesGod's Gonna Make You LaughGod’s Time— The Fifth Dimension In the same way, Father knows what is best for your life. God is waiting for some things to die in you before He will show up with a miracle. There can be no resurrection until there is a death. That is part of the process. His delays are not denials. They are simply apart of the process of preparation so that you are ready to enjoy what God is going to bring into your life. Between the promise and the fulfillment you will walk through the valley of the shadow of death. The reason for this is that God will not reveal Himself in the season that you think is best. The God that lives above and beyond time is the one that understands the proper time for your rescue, your healing, your blessing, and your victory. God’s time is not our time, but it is the right time. Timing is a vision thing. We cannot see from His point of view. Our vision is obstructed by our placement in this time/space world. We live in a three- dimensional world including longitude, latitude, and altitude. We cannot exist in two places at the same time. Einstein defined time as the fourth dimension. God, however, lives in another dimension that is not controlled by longitude, latitude, or altitude and is unhindered by clocks and calendars. He lives outside of time but chooses to work within time. His time is the fifth dimension. It is another time that He controls. He can make the sun to shine in the middle of the winter, the snow to fall in spring, and rain to pour in the middle of autumn, and He can cause a good old nor’easter cold front to come blowing through the middle of a blistering hot August. The bottom line is, whenever He comes is the right time and the right season. When it’s time for Him to come through on your behalf, nothing in the world will be able to stop the success that He has chosen for your life.

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Now that I have advertised my blog in the paper as a spiritual and artistic journey of a reborn Christian and a reborn Artist....Wow what a ride...... I guess I need to give a little history so those who do not know me will understand where I was in my past life and why I am writing this now....

I married at 18, not for love, but because I was pregnant. I had a wonderful son and a miserable marriage. But I was never one to give up and besides it was too easy just to let things slide.

When I was 31 my son was hit by a car and died at the age of 13. My husband and I each proceeded to go our own way in destroying our lives. Alcohol, drugs and rock and roll.

I was lucky in that I could keep up appearances during the day and had a rewarding career in the medical field. One of my conventions brought me to Portland, Oregon and my husband and I fell in love with the Oregon Coast. The marriage was still miserable but tolerable and I saw hope in moving to Oregon to get my husband out from under the control of cocaine. From the beginning of time I have always wanted to fix everyone but myself.

At 40 we moved to Oregon to begin our new life. Seven years later my husband was dead at age 60 from a horrific disease, interstitial fibrosis. I cared for him during the progressive disease which lasted 3 years. He died on father's day. As I sat in the room that morning waiting for the undertaker, I could only feel that our son had come to take his Dad home. I should probably note that from the time my son died I had written God off. There was no answer for me as to why children have to die, especially mine. During my husband's illness, I would walk past the chapel at Providence Hospital and something would call to me to come in and I would deny it, get away from me. I want no part of a God that appears unjust. Then 9/11 happened and that really cemented it in my mind that God wasn't worth the effort letting innocent people die so unfairly.

During one of my tirades about this, to a Christian, there appeared behind him, in blazing letters....."JESUS" Somehow I accepted what had happened in my life as God's will, I could not understand, I just had to accept and believe in his mercy.....and that is the day I accepted Jesus as my savior.

Instantly I was given a person to love, I was given my new husband's two wonderful children and then grandchildren. All that I had lost was given back to me...on faith, blind faith...because we can never begin to understand God's plan......Now I was right with God but I had not let him dwell in my heart and in my consciousness and I had not yet begun a relationship with my savior.

Then my new husband's 31 year old son was diagnosed with osteosarcoma and died..... but not before he brought his Dad and me back into the Lord's house and we became re-committed to God's plan for our lives, his word and his house.

I feel so very blessed that God did not EVER give up on me and he will NEVER give up on anyone until the very end...

Giving up the remote control has not been easy since I am a control freak and have always believed I was the one directing my life. But....I can only suggest trying it....you will be amazed at what happens and the joy it brings.....